Sorry About That: Wells Fargo to End Ads Suggesting Science Over Arts
Wells Fargo, the financial services giant immortalized in lyrics to “The Music Man,” has apologized for advertisements that seemed to suggest that teenagers should set aside their artistic dreams and choose careers in science.
The print ads, promoting a “teen financial education day” program, featured an image of a smiling young woman with the headline: “A ballerina yesterday. An engineer today.” And a young man was shown with the headline: “An actor yesterday. A botanist today.” Each picture featured the tagline, “Let’s get them ready for tomorrow.”
A number of prominent artists took to social media over the holiday weekend to voice their objections to the implicit career guidance, including the songwriter Robert Lopez (“Frozen”), the singer Josh Groban, and the actors Laura Benanti (“She Loves Me”), Alex Brightman (“School of Rock”),Michael Cerveris (“Fun Home”), Donna Lynn Champlin (“Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”), Cynthia Erivo (“The Color Purple”), Heather Headley (“Aida”),Zachary Levi (“She Loves Me”), Andy Mientus (“Smash”), Anthony Rapp(“Rent”), Alexandra Silber (“Fiddler on the Roof”), Wesley Taylor (“Smash”) and Jenna Ushkowitz (“Glee”).
